Turtles All The Way Down Review: Something Different For Die-Hard John Green Fans
I will start this review by saying that Turtles All The Way Down is one of the most well-publicized books of 2017. When this book released, it took over my Insta, Twitter, Facebook and even my YouTube. This book was EVERYWHERE. Though I liked John Green’s, The Fault in Our Stars, I am not a big fan of his. I did not enjoy An Abundance of Katherines and Looking for Alaska which is why I did not intend to buy this book. However, readers and book bloggers could not stop raving about this book and I decided to buy a copy just to understand what the hype was about. At first, I thought it is a mystery where the girl sets out in search of a missing billionaire. I am acquainted with John Green’s writing and I knew that, while looking for the businessman, the female lead will learn a lot about herself and life. However, I did not know that this time it is more than just self-discovery for the main character. I finished the book in two nights and here is what I felt about this book.
Turtles All The Way Down by John Green
Publisher: Penguin Random House UK
Sixteen-year-old Aza never intended to pursue the mystery of fugitive billionaire Russell Pickett, but there’s a hundred-thousand-dollar reward at stake and her Best and Most Fearless Friend, Daisy, is eager to investigate. So together, they navigate the short distance and broad divides that separate them from Russell Pickett’s son, Davis.
Aza is trying. She is trying to be a good daughter, a good friend, a good student, and maybe even a good detective, while also living within the ever-tightening spiral of her own thoughts.
In his long-awaited return, John Green, the acclaimed, award-winning author of Looking for Alaska and The Fault in Our Stars, shares Aza’s story with shattering, unflinching clarity in this brilliant novel of love, resilience, and the power of lifelong friendship.
(Synopsis as on book jacket)
I LIKE Turtles All The Way Down Because,
…Aza felt so so real. Anyone suffering from anxiety will know how crippling this mental condition is. Anxiety never allows you to live in peace. On the outside, a person may appear calm but on the inside, there is something constantly gnawing at your brains leaving you restless. Fear becomes second nature because living without it would mean the end of life itself. Someone who has never suffered from anxiety will never understand the unrealistic fears that bother Aza. Her illogical fears may seem baloney to a normal person but ask a chronically anxious person about it and you will find many Azas around you. Green does a terrific job depicting Aza’s mental troubles. He catches the nerve of anxiety and effectively portrays it through Aza.
I Do NOT Like Turtles All The Way Down Because,
…the plot was thin and boring. After reading the synopsis, I thought it would be interesting to see teenagers solve a missing case. I thought along with the mystery, Aza will have solutions to a lot of her own problems (in a typical John Green style). However, the whole scenario of Aza and Daisy looking for a missing billionaire became uninteresting after a point in the story. Even the conclusion to the mystery seemed half-baked and I wish it would have been dealt differently.
…I did not like Aza and Davis’s love story. If you have read my drama reviews or even book reviews you will know that I am a stickler for romance and I seek love in every book I read. Aza has issues that keep her from losing herself to love. I understand her in that way but I failed to understand Davis. I could never connect with his character. For me, he felt like fiction. Someone who is there but, still not there. Because of him could not bring myself to like Aza’s short romance. Davis seemed to understand Aza’s problem but his overly philosophical blog entries made me unable to understand him.
Favourite Quotes in Turtles All The Way Down
“Your now is not your forever.”
“Anybody can look at you. It’s quite rare to find someone who sees the same world you see.”
“True terror isn’t being scared; it’s not having a choice on the matter.”
“The thing about a spiral is, if you follow it inward, it never actually ends. It just keeps tightening, infinitely.”
“What I love about science is that as you learn, you don’t really get answers. You just get better questions.”
“And we’re such language-based creatures that to some extent we cannot know what we cannot name. And so we assume it isn’t real. We refer to it with catch-all terms, like crazy or chronic pain, terms that both ostracise and minimise. The term chronic pain captures nothing of the grinding, constant, ceaseless, inescapable hurt. And the term crazy arrives at us with none of the terror and worry you live with.”
“I is the hardest word to define.”
Final View: You will enjoy this book only if you are a fan of John Green’s books. This one is a little different than his previous books. Also, if you suffer from anxiety, you might understand and even relate to Aza’s plight. Other than that, I do not see this book very high on my recommendation list.
You can check out Amazon.in for a discount on this book.
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